Generation Starships

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Given the difficulty of going elsewhere, it's necessary to treat them pretty well to avoid them going stir-crazy.

That makes perfect sense. Which is probably why I didn't think of it.;-)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

...

All the things you find suspicious real people would find dull.

THS is even more full of nosy nellies than today. There are probably thousands of A.I.s dedicated to searching out "suspicious" activity by companies. What they and I consider suspicious is mostly "creative accounting" and unprofitable behavior by capitalist businesses.
We aren't talking about specific individuals discovering the secret, but anyone, right?
Does it matter who lets the cat out of the bag?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

THS is even more full of nosy nellies than today. There are probably thousands of A.I.s dedicated to searching out "suspicious" activity by companies. What they and I consider suspicious is mostly "creative accounting" and unprofitable behavior by capitalist businesses.
We aren't talking about specific individuals discovering the secret, but anyone, right?
Does it matter who lets the cat out of the bag?

But only certain areas are likely to get attention. You assume that spies and terrorists are all powerful. If that were the case Ben Laden and the politburo od the USSR would rule the world, or maybe MI5 and 6 would be the real Lords of creation. Spies look for what the expect to find. That is their most brutal limitation.

[Flyndaran]

Just that the future will make secrets harder to keep, not easier. As generation ship manufacture is a gargantuan secret, I think that hiding it would require draconian cloak and dagger methods, and not simple hide in plain sight.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Just that the future will make secrets harder to keep, not easier. As generation ship manufacture is a gargantuan secret, I think that hiding it would require draconian cloak and dagger methods, and not simple hide in plain sight.

No, there will be a lot more noise to bury any signal. You just want us to amuse you by giving you a chance to shoot down anything we say. I don't concede that you've made your point...do I will leave this thread.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

But only certain areas are likely to get attention. You assume that spies and terrorists are all powerful.

That sounds more like a pro-secret world view than Flyn is saying. When secrets are hard to keep, terrorists and spies are harder pressed to do their work in secret. Spies uncover secrets, but generally only by being sneaky themselves; in a more transparent world, secrets are found not by spies but by technical experts going over instrument data. Compare the way the Cuban Missile Crisis began, with the a guy going over aerial photographs finding geometric features among the natural ones. It was no secret to the Cubans and Soviets what he was doing, nor that the planes were flying over Cuba.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

No, there will be a lot more noise to bury any signal. You just want us to amuse you by giving you a chance to shoot down anything we say. I don't concede that you've made your point...do I will leave this thread.

No, I'm not. I merely argue about how you and others are interpreting THS R.A.W. setting.
But I will drop the issue as it's getting you rather heated.

[ldj00]

Hello,

How about doing it like S.M. Stirling's Stone Dogs.

Nested cover stories, layers upon layers, cogs inside cogs.